Keeping the sunshine...

by Karolina, 20th September 2012

I can already feel the autumn's breath on my back. It's close, veeeeeery close.
Evenings are shorter and morning a little chilly. Yes my dears...we have to say goodbye to summer and brace for long cold months.
But i decided to keep a little bit of sunshine with me, to steal tiny sweet ray of summer...

I made apricot jam. With these lovely sunny like gems.
I was inspired by lovely Bea from Bea in the kitchen and her incredible canning skills. She has dozens of amazingly good jam, confiture and marmalade recipes. I'm making her plum-chocolate jam pretty much every year.
This time I decided to combine couple of ideas from her apricot recipes and created my own apricot jam

To usual suspects: apricots and sugar, I added as well cardamon and fresh thyme.
And they cooked...What a smell!!! Amazing!

At the very end I added some almond flakes.
The end effect is really nice.
Sweet and a little tangy at the same time with lovely smell of cardamon and just a tiny hint of thyme.

Are you planning to keep some summer? Tell me how!

Summer entertaining

by Karolina, 19th August 2012

I love having friends over for dinner, I really enjoy preparing bigger parties and I especially adore summer entertaining. With long evenings, friendly weather and bountiful of produce summer entertaining is definitely the most enjoyable.
I try to keep menu simple - nobody feels like eating roast dinner when it's hot outside!
So I stick with salads, cold platters, cold soups (you'll see some later this week), fresh fruits.

Today, I wanted to show you a classic...

Watermelon + feta + basil

The best of summer really - fresh sweet fruit, salty cheese which reminds us holidays in Greece and beautiful green basil.

If I prepare a buffer I would just cube cheese and watermelon and hold them together with basil using a toothpick. This is the version you can see today.
Finish it off with fresh pepper and sprinkle of olive oil for the best taste.

Don't you just love the colours? Vibrant and fresh - definitely perfect for summer



You can as well cut out different shapes out of watermelon, or prepare bigger portions if serving as a starter for dinner party.

So, go on - prepare these tiny morsels of summer before it's gone!

Summer chocolates...

by Karolina, 26th July 2012

Nice chocolates, no?

OK, I have to be honest...these are not really chocolates...
These are my summer chocolates :)
Packed with fruits, yoghurt and what makes is even more appropriate for summer - they're COLD!
So, probably I should have called it frozen yoghurt in form of chocolates...but "summer chocolates" sounds better. Don't you think?

Why did I make it?
Because summer is like box of chocolates :)

To be honest, I had some leftover blueberry smoothie which didn't fit into the bottle....and then this amazingly thought came to my mind..."Where is my chocolate mold?".

That's how these little babies came to life.

And you know what....I loved it :)

Because it was pretty much an improvisation, I can't give you exact measurements when it comes to the amounts of needed ingredients...but I'll give you rough idea. I hope you don't mind too much and this will actually push you to experiment a little bit.

So, for summer chocolates (yes, I still think it's a good name) you'll need:

- blueberries (handful or 2)

- natural yoghurt (best would be Greek one)

- honey or sugar (to taste)

Blend all together , making sure that you have smooth cocktail. Pour into silicon chocolate mould or silicon ice mould. Freeze...(a few hours should be enough)

And what to do with these?

Well...You can of course fool everyone around that these are real chocolates and wait until they bite in.... :)

OK, just an idea ;)

But even better will be to :

- add it instead of ice-cream on top of your warm  pie and watch how it slowly melts...mmmm

- put it on top of fruits (for example bananas) for extra creaminess

- blend a few of them for instant cold smoothie goodness

- mix in with your muesli and milk for added flavour

Just a few ideas...

I'm pretty sure you can come up with some more (I'd love to hear about them - so please put a comment below).

Have some "summer chocolates" with me!

I(ce) S(cream)

by Karolina, 11th July 2012

I scream ice-cream! :)
It's been pretty hot here in the last couple of weeks..not that I'm complaining - sunny weather is always good. However, the heat makes me want ice-ceam. Very badly...
I should/try to avoid zillions of  calories hidden in my favouite summer treats...so I tried a few "healthy" ice-cream. Don't worry, it's not one of these things where "healthy" mean "yucky" :) In this case it means "yummy"!

These are my Blueberry Yoghurt Lollies. Not only it's nice and healthy, but easy as well. Seriously!

All you need is:

- blueberies (couple of handfuls)

- natural yoghurt (fat free or normal)

- honey (if you like it sweeter)

You just blend it all. Of course you can just drink it as smoothie and it will be good enough. But for the ice-cream lovers I propose next step...

Pour the mixture into ice tray and pop into the freezer. After half hour/hour insert the lolly sticks (or coffee stirrers). Leave it in the freezer for a few hours and then enjoy :)

To take them out of the tray, insert the tray for a few seconds into warm water.

Note: of course you can make it in the ice-lollies foms. I did it in ice tray because:

1. I didn't have the forms at that point yet

2. I wanted to have smaller portions as a little snack

I think they make great summer party treat as well. Of course timing is everything when it comes to ice-cream, so make sure you don't take them out too ealy. Have a tray of ice at hand as well.

And what is your favourite summer treat?

Cheery cherry...

by Karolina, 26th June 2012

I love cherries! For me they symbolize summer.
I'm mesmerized by their colour - rich, dark and deep burgundy.

Actually most of the time I don't prepare them anyhow, don't bake them (maybe occasionally making clafoutis) or cook them...just eat them fresh.
However, inspired by some recipe I saw online (of course, I can't find it now - I'll credit as soon as I find it), I decided to try something new. Cherry smoothie...



I've used a lot of fruits for smoothies before: strawberry, raspberry, banana, mango, blueberry...but never tried cherry! Why? No idea...

So it was a time to try it.

Cherry smoothie:

- good handful of cherries

- milk (to fill)

- 1 tsp honey (or 1 tsp sugar)

- dash of cocoa

Pit the cherries, blend them until smooth, add milk, honey (sugar) and little cocoa (for extra taste). Blend again until all mixed.

What came out of it? Nice, soft, refreshing smoothie with little chocolatey taste in the background.

But being myself...I decided to play with it a bit and create little more boozy version for summer evening cocktail...and that's how Cheery Cherry came to life! :)

Again, all blended and mixed in until smooth.

I ended up having nice, smooth, womanly, soft cocktail - perfect for summer evening. Cherries added extra "zing" to this cocktail.

If you prefer "virgin" version or boozy one - give it a try!

And hurry up - cherry season is not lasting forever :)

Cheery Cherry:

- good handful of cherries

- 1cl Malibu or other coconut liqueur (you can change the amount of alcohol depending on your preference - to make it lighter or stronger)

- milk (to fill)

- 1 tsp sugar syrup

- dash of cocoa

Summer...

by Karolina, 24th June 2012

...is here :)
Summer with its abundance of colours, smells and tastes...
Summer with its flowers and berries...
Summer with hot sun and cool shadow...

This is just a little preview of a few posts that are coming your way :)

Keep tuned -I'll show plenty of summer entertaining ideas and cooking inspirations in coming weeks.

Enjoy the summer!